For who to understand? You or your son? I don’t think it is a problem that perplexes him.

Honestly…for both of us, lol…For example: My biological father sends me a rosary every year on my birthday. I have no fucking clue what to do with it. I don’t really know anything about the Catholic faith and I feel like I should have…you know?

Rosary beads are like an abacus for prayers. They are to help you recite prayers to the Creator of the Universe where you can command him to give you your daily ration of bread and ask forgiveness for your sins. You mainly pray to the Virgin Mary to remind her that you are a sinner and to praise her for the fruit of her womb. You also need to say this ten times in a row, hence the beads. You also ask her to pray for you 60 minutes before you die. Some Catholics, I suppose they are the greatest sinners in need of forgiveness, like to kneel on them for the pain while others tie them tightly around their thighs to remind them that Jesus died for them. How they keep forgetting that core tenet of their faith is beyond me. I hope that clears it up a bit for you.

Rosary beads are like an abacus for prayers. They are to help you recite prayers to the Creator of the Universe where you can command him to give you your daily ration of bread and ask forgiveness for your sins. You mainly pray to the Virgin Mary to remind her that you are a sinner and to praise her for the fruit of her womb. You also need to say this ten times in a row, hence the beads. You also ask her to pray for you 60 minutes before you die. Some Catholics, I suppose they are the greatest sinners in need of forgiveness, like to kneel on them for the pain while others tie them tightly around their thighs to remind them that Jesus died for them. How they keep forgetting that core tenet of their faith is beyond me. I hope that clears it up a bit for you.

I’ve always found prayer beads grotesque, for many reasons. The first, is the idea that you can attone for anything by repeating senseless sentences, and worse that horrible deeds can be quantified with a certain number of repeated phrases. That in itself is insane. But the beads themselves, represent each meaningless line, one that has nothing to do with a douchey thing you have done….each bead is one droning babble of words which have eventually lost its meaning. How can it not be like that for most people, where the task is not to work out what was wrong, why you did it, how it affects others, how that behavior fits into your world view and your every day habbits….but instead comes down to a task to simply finish all the beads and get to the forgiveness part, like a “to do list” in the form of a bracelet? It’s like a child at school forced to write out 50 lines on a chalkboard. By line 5 the student no longer thinks about the mean thing he did but how many more lines until its over. The phrase doesn’t represent a lesson to learn but something to get done with.

In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter if the Gospels are tales or not as they function on psychological grounds (and, of course, political, social, etc.) and it’s the needs that are fulfilled by them that really matter. Truth is often more subjective then objective despite attempts to say otherwise. In this context the truth lies totally with the preponderance of opinion laid down as lawful truths. It’s a way for power, centering, and more to find a way to work.

In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter if the Gospels are tales or not as they function on psychological grounds (and, of course, political, social, etc.) and it’s the needs that are fulfilled by them that really matter. Truth is often more subjective then objective despite attempts to say otherwise. In this context the truth lies totally with the preponderance of opinion laid down as lawful truths. It’s a way for power, centering, and more to find a way to work.

My biological father says that it would really help him. Idk. I’m confused.

Tell that to an evangelical Christian :-). Does it matter if Goldilocks and the 3 Bears is just a tale if people find meaning in it?

Truth is often more subjective then objective despite attempts to say otherwise.

I say otherwise. Personal truths are subjective especially if they are based upon a fiction. Objective truths are derived from evidenced based deductions of observable reality.

I think you should have phrased that sentence differently. People can derive meaning, rather than truth, from the gospels, even if they are just fictional. People will only find an illusion of truth if they build their worldview upon an untruth. To paraphrase Matthew 7:24-27 we would be wise to build it upon the rock of objective reality and not be foolish enough to build it upon the wet sands of having faith or hope that a fiction is the truth.

We’ve taught each other from generation to generation through story since the beginning of language…Pretty compelling way to prove a point to someone (like you just demonstrated.) It might be the only way to get through to an at risk kid. Idk.